How to Recover Second-Gen Bucket Seats - Part 2

In Part 1 of our seat restoration, we covered the teardown, provided an overview of the new parts, and began the reassembly of the ’77 T/A Custom (aka Deluxe) bucket seats. The parts needed for the project were sourced from YearOne and the skilled hands of Kurt Reiche and Gil Monge, owner of Gillin Custom Design, performed the labor employing their decades of experience.

These articles can provide HPP readers not only with the basics of re-covering this type of seat, but also some tips to make the process go easier and result in a more professional looking product. So let’s pick up where we left off last issue and complete the restoration of our T/A seats.

2/34As was obvious in the teardown photos in Part 1, the bottom seat frame had plenty of surface rust on it, so it was sandblasted…

Careful application of heat via a heat gun removed unwanted wrinkles

Part Numbers and Pricing

Part

PN

Price

Quantity

Company

Repro seat foam, ’73-’77 Firebird Deluxe

MV738P

$291.98 per pair

1

YearOne

Repro seat covers, ’77 Firebird Custom

CF477Z70

$339.99 per pair

1

YearOne

Repro seatback cover, ’73-’81 Firebird Deluxe

BB738BLK

$115.99 each

1

YearOne

Hog rings

MG3997

$6.11

1 bag of 50

YearOne

Labor

N/A

$150 per seat

2

Gillin Custom Designs

All prices are current as of May 2013.

Conclusion

Here are a few things to remember when re-covering your seats.

Gil says: “Cheap seat covers and foam quickly become more expensive if they fit poorly and require more labor to fix. Customers often believe that they need seat covers but not foam. Any vintage seat will always need new foam. When ordering these parts, get them from one place—don’t mix and match products from different sources.

“It’s best to clean and paint all the metal parts and address all hardware issues while the seats are apart, because it will be way more expensive and labor intensive if you have to attempt repairs after the new covers are on.

“Get professional-quality hog-ring pliers like we used in this story. Don’t use the small ones that come with some seat reupholstery kits—your hands will thank you.” (We already had a set from Eastwood (PN 50397) from a previous project.)

“Don’t skip any steps in the process, as all are important. You will see the shortcuts in the final product.”

Even though there are a lot of steps, re-covering your seats is not an overly difficult endeavor. Having patience, the right tools, and high-quality reproduction foam and covers will make the project go much smoother.

34/34Some additional heat removed the final few wrinkles. Here’s our finished seat looking brand new. (We’ll remove the plastic seatback cover to install the trim when we get it.)